The Billionaire's Pretend Wife (Isabella) novel Chapter 42

Lucy Cruz was in the master bedroom with her husband when Isabelle showed up at the front door. The master bedroom was on the first floor, facing the front of the house. It had a balcony on which if they stood, they would have a clear view of Isabelle at the door.

When the servant turned Isabelle away, Lucy had thought she would go away. She was determined to ignore her and even have the servants lock her out of the house. But when she threatened to tell Jacob Garcia the truth about their marriage, she froze with fear.

She wouldn’t really do that, would she? If the Garcias found out that they had deceived them, there would be consequences.

“How dare she?” she muttered, pacing beside the king size bed in the room. “We rescued her from that dirty orphanage and gave her a decent upbringing. And a family she could only have ever dreamed of. How dare she threaten to reveal the truth about Naomi?”

“We promised her,” Francis pointed out. “Do not forget that she did us a favour by marrying Jacob instead of Naomi. Even before Naomi claimed to be pregnant, you were always begging me to save her from getting married to an illegitimate son. Isabelle was willing to do it if we paid Ruth’s medical bill. Let’s just give her the money.”

“What money?” Lucy demanded. “If we give her the money we have, what will we give Naomi? Don’t forget that Naomi is the one who is our biological daughter!” She hurried to the bedside cabin and snapped a tissue from a box lying there. Turning away from Francis, she dabbed at her eyes and sniffed into the tissue, pretending to cry. “I don’t know why you always want to defend that girl at the expense of our daughter.”

Francis sighed and took a step towards her. “Isabelle is our daughter too–”

“I gave birth to only one daughter!” she snapped. “I don’t work so hard so that all my money can go to some stray child we picked up off the street. After everything we have done for her, don’t you think she should be happy to do this for us without asking anything?”

Knowing that pleading for Isabelle would never work with his wife, Francis changed his tactic. “Whatever happens, we cannot let the Garcias know that we duped them. They will not be happy to know that the girl we gave to their son in marriage is not our eldest daughter.” He paced a little, and then regarded his wife again. “Even if Jacob is an idler, his personality will not allow him to sit by and do nothing. Also, he still has his powerful family behind him. If he decides to take revenge on us, our businesses could be ruined. Don’t forget that the Garcias have far more influence than us.”

Lucy crumpled up the tissue in her hand and tossed it into a nearby bin. “This is exactly why I didn’t want Naomi to get married to him. He is only an illegitimate son, so even if his family is wealthy, he has nothing unless he works for it. If his family bothered to support him, that woman wouldn’t be at our door right now making threats for money. If she was smart at all, she would at least try to get pregnant. Who knows, maybe the Garcias will be more generous towards their grandchild.”

“Lucy,” Francis said calmly, hoping to bring her attention back to the issue at hand–the Garcias’ wrath.

She sighed. “Fine, you are right. I imagine he will be angry that we gave him an orphan as a wife instead of our eldest daughter.” She worried her lip as she recalled the scene he had made that day when she had thrown Isabelle out of the house.

If he behaved like that because of how they had treated Isabelle, how much worse would his temper be if he found out that they had fooled him? What if he decided to take revenge on Naomi? No, she couldn’t leave her daughter at the mercy of the Garcias.

Francis released a sigh of relief. “Let’s end this once and for all. If Isabelle keeps coming back for the money, he might suspect something is up.”

Even as Lucy agreed that paying Isabelle was important to keep her silent, she still didn’t feel like giving her anything. She headed towards the balcony and stood outside, where there was a clear view of Isabelle still standing outside the door. The door was locked, and the servant was nowhere to be seen.

“You!” she yelled, instantly attracting Isabelle’s attention. Glaring at her, she continued, “How dare you show up here and start demanding for money? Hasn’t this family spent enough on you already? Have you no shame? How greedy can you get?”